Application of Mobile
Technology In Library Stock Verification:
A Case Study
N.SURESH
Ph.D.
Research Scholar,
Department
of LIS, Alagappa University, Karaikkudi - 630 003
Librarian,
Government Law College, Trichy-620 023
Dr. S. THANUSKODI
Professor
and Head
Dept.
of LIS, Alagappa University, Karaikkudi - 630 003
ABSTRACT
This
article explain the use of the mobile technology (LoMag) and "Auto
Lib" library automation software for stock verification in the library of Government
Law College ,Trichy. The complete procedure, ie, Books barcode scanning with
LoMag barcode scanner for Android, data capturing, downloading, modification
and uploading along with data processing and report generation have been
described.
Keywords:
Library Stock verification, Mobile
technology, Lomag app, AUTOLIB
INTRODUCTION:
Library
stock verification is the process of checking all the items on a library's
shelves against a list of holdings to identify for replacement those missing
and not checked out. A similar procedure is used to check other library
property such as furniture and equipment against an authority list to identify
missing items. Also refers to the list itself, which may include descriptions,
quantities, prices paid, etc. (Reitz, Joan M.)
Stock
verification helps to replace those missing documents and take apposite
precautionary measures to reduce the theft. Besides this, the identification of
damaged books for binding, Shelf rectification, cleaning and weed out of unused books
are also performed simultaneously. Traditionally the procedures adopted for
inventory checking are, i) Verification by Accession Register, ii) Using a
separate register with Accession Numbers, iii) Slips containing Accession
Numbers, iv) Numerical counting, v) Shelf registers cards or shelf list cards .
The above methods are tedious,
time consuming, and error flat due to manual procedures.
This article explains the Procedure to stock
verification using mobile technology and AUTOLIB software.
GOVERNMENT
LAW COLLEGE, TRICHY LIBRARY
Government Law College , Trichy
was established in the year 1979 by Government of Tamilnadu. The
college was recognised by the Bar council of India and is affiliated to The
Tamilnadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University Chennai, the college is under UGC 12B and
2F status. The Main objective of this college is to provide Effective and
Quality Legal Education at an affordable cost to the students hailing from
rural areas. This college offers Five Year B.A.LL.B ,LL.B Course ,Three LL.B Course and Two Year LL.M
course in Labour and Administrative Law with a total strength of 1400 students.
Library
and information centre plays a vital role in supporting and furthering the
academic and research mission of Government Law College, Trichy and facilitates
creation and dissemination of knowledge. The range and quality of services
offered by the Library are comparable to any modern libraries in Law Schools.
Library
serves as a steward of wonderful treasures ranging from Books, Journals,
M.L Dissertations, Law reports Newspapers , Periodicals , Online database
and E-question Papers with total collection 32400 Books for its users community. The Library functions
are automated using an integrated Library Software called “AUTOLIB” with the
barcode technology, and Provide facility to the users access Automatic Library
gate register facility, Online Public access catalogue and Digital knowledge
centre.
BARCODE
LABELING
Each
Book in a Government Law College trichy Library having barcode labelling use
accession number for this purpose.
The
labels designed using Bar Tender Ultra lite software for Windows, which
supports major barcode symbologies. Code 128, a high density linear symbology
that can encode text, numbers, several functions and the entire 128 ASCII
character set was selected for designing the labels and Citizen CL-S621Z
printer using to take Print out the Barcode labels. Figure 1 shows the barcode
label design specifications.
LOMAG
BARCODE SCANNER FOR ANDROID
Lomag
app can change your phone into a data collector without any limitations to the
amount of collected codes, completely free of charge.The barcode reader
supports the following most of the code formats .The most important functions
of the application are Continuous
scanning of successive barcodes with quantity, Barcode scanning and input of
quantity from keybord , Barcode scanning and input of quantity and price and
Scanning of barcode and serial number Support of many data sets, which may be
named and browsed. Data sets may be saved in Microsoft Excel format compatible
with version 97 and newer. The app allows you to send files via e-mail or save
them on an SD card. Download LoMag from Google Play store.
PROCEDURE
OF LOMAG BARCODE SCANNER
To start scanning barcodes need to open a new
file where the information about scanned
barcodes will be stored to do that, click on the first icon in the app which is
called "Add file “. a
window with a request to confirm the creation of a new file will be displayed (
change the name of the file). Click "Confirm" to continue. The
scanner will now running scan the barcode with the phone camera of android phone and it will
scan, recognize and save the barcode and informed that the code has been
scanned by a sound , vibration and text information at the bottom part of the
screen. After scanning the code the scanner resets the display, and it is ready
to scan another barcode. After scanning and go to the main menu of the app,
click the icon in the top left-hand side corner see the list of the scanned
barcodes in the "Data preview"
after that download data in to excel file or send the Excel document
with the barcodes to an e-mail address.
BARCODE
CAPTURING, MODIFICATION AND UPLOADING IN EXCEL
Lomag
installed android mobile phones used as barcode scanner. The lomag scanner scans the encoded data and
automatically decodes and stores up to storage capacity of phone of data in the
memory. Each Book was scanned and stamped (month and year) manually at the
inside backcover to avoid duplication. As the accession number differs from one
to other, In this stock verification process totally four person employed , two
person scanned the barcode label (accession number) of documents and other two
persons marked the documents. The Lomag
Scans approx. 250 accession numbers in one hour and its complete the
entire 32400 Books in Seven days . During
scanning, the app stores the accession number of each document and
automatically displays the document number for a moment. If a data scanned is
wrong, it can be manually updated or rescanned, and if a document has been in
advertently scanned multiple times, the terminal simply stores the documents
with duplicate accession numbers.The data was downloaded into and was saved in
a data file (*.xls) in the computer. During scanning, the app stores the
accession number of each document and automatically displays the document
number for a moment. If a data scanned is wrong, it can be manually deleted and
rescanned, and if a document has been in advertently scanned multiple times,
the terminal simply stores the documents with duplicate accession numbers it
will be remove excel sorting option.
AUTO
LIB - STOCK VERIFICATION
MODULE
As
the entire collection of GLCT library was catalogued in the Autolib, the data
analyses and report generation was carried out through the Autolib stock
module. This module allows for
stock verification of library resources using excel file (xls) and generate reports
of books such as - missing, lost, issued, binding, transferred condemned,
available, etc.
DATA
ANALYSIS
The
AUTOLIB provides Stock verification in two ways; accession numbers one by one, and list of
accession numbers in a excel file. All verified accession numbers are stored in
a file. The system registers accession numbers for verification in the
database. After matching the accession number from the excel file, the AUTOLIB
automatically generate reports of books such as - missing, lost, issued, binding,
transferred condemned, available, etc.
in PDF format .
STOCK
VERIFICATION REPORT
As
the term stock verification implies only on stock, a list of missing accession
numbers is generated against the captured data file. After several cross checking,
the final verification report is prepared in a text (*.txt) file. The
CONCLUSION
Mobile
technology is reliable and easy to use. It improves accuracy and accelerates
the processing time, eliminates the typing errors, decreases the costs and
improves the services. During the stock verification period, routine library
activities can be carried out without any disturbance. Data-capturing Phones is
handy and portable, and there is no problem of scanning the data multiple
times. There is only disadvantage is no provision for finding duplicate entry.
. Overall, the technology is beneficial for carrying out stock verifications in
libraries. Since there is no human intervention, the verification report
generated by the system is perfect and accurate.
REFERENCES
1.
Reitz,
Joan M. Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. (ODLIS) accessed July
28, 2018 from http://www.abcclio.com/ODLIS/odlis_A.aspx#library.
2.
Rajendiran
P. and Indu Bhushan Automated Library Stock Verification with Barcode and
LibSys DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology, Vol. 26, No. 5, September
2006, pp. 17-21.
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